It is necessary during certain surgical procedures, such as, but not limited to, laparoscopic or surgical procedures, to provide a source of irrigation fluid and, alternately, a suction or vacuum force to a body cavity. It is also common during the above described procedures to provide a flexible instrument such as a fiber optic bundle or endoscope into the body cavity. The procedure may be carried out with the use of instruments that may provide all three functions.
The use of presently available devices have certain drawbacks. For example, a device that provides a suction force and an irrigation stream to a body cavity utilizes two independent button activated valves which are independently operated. The described device has the undesirable drawback in that both valves can be inadvertently depressed creating flow of irrigation stream into the vacuum line thereby resulting in wasted time and energy in order to clean and flush the line.
Another drawback of the above described invention is the gradual buildup of blood and tissue in a common cavity joining the irrigation and vacuum passages. The result is that the blood and tissue are eventually mixed into the irrigation stream and carried back into the body cavity. The specific drawback is the potential of contamination of the irrigation solution and the waste of valuable time and irrigation solution in having to further suction out the blood and tissue that was flushed back into the body cavity.
Another example of a device presently available is the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,881,523, which utilizes a single valve and a single plunger in providing an irrigation stream and a suction force. But, as with the above described invention, the device has the drawback of an intermediate position which allows a common passage between the irrigation flow and the suction passage, thus, having the same critical problems as the above described device.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide a simple device to enable the practitioner to provide a suction force, and, alternately an irrigation stream to a body cavity.
It is yet a further object of the present invention to provide a device which does not provide a common passage between the irrigation stream and a suction passage.
It is still yet another object of the present invention to provide the practitioner with a device that provides an irrigation stream and a suction force which is operated conveniently by the use of a single hand.
It is still further yet another object of the present invention to allow for the access of the flexible instrument through such a device without interfering with the functions thereof.